Hans Zulliger
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Hans Zulliger (February 21, 1893 in Mett/Mache, today part of
Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...
,
Canton of Bern The canton of Bern, or Berne (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. The bear is the heraldic symbol of the c ...
– October 18, 1965 in
Ittigen Ittigen is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The municipality was formed in 1983 when it and Ostermundigen were separated from territory once part of Bolligen. History Its ...
) was a
Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...
teacher, child
psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...
and author.


Life

From 1912 until 1959, Zulliger was a primary school teacher in Ittigen, Switzerland. He is remembered for his pioneer work of applying psychoanalytical practices into the
education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
of school children, mostly from rural, working-class and under-privileged environments. He was introduced to modern
psychiatric Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, mood, emotion, and behavior. Initial psychiatric assessment of ...
thought by educator Ernst Schneider (1878-1957) of the ''
Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
-
Hofwil Hofwil is a village in the canton of Bern, Switzerland, part of the municipality of Münchenbuchsee. The village of Hofwil was originally part of the lands owned by the Münchenbuchsee Commandery, a medieval commandery of the Knights Hospitaller i ...
Teachers' Academy''. Zulliger enthusiastically studied the works of
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
and
Alfred Adler Alfred Adler ( ; ; 7 February 1870 – 28 May 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of belonging, relationships within the family, a ...
, subsequently becoming an analysand to Swiss
theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...
and lay psychoanalyst
Oskar Pfister Oskar Pfister (; 23 February 1873 – 6 August 1956) was a Swiss Lutheran minister and lay psychoanalyst. Biography Pfister studied theology, philosophy and psychology at the University of Zurich and the University of Basel, graduating in 1898 i ...
. Later on, Freud became interested in Zulliger's work, and visited him twice in Switzerland. Zulliger had an intuitive understanding of children, as individuals, and also when they engaged in interactive group environments. He conducted research of children in regards to their difficulties at school, the games they played, and numerous other aspects of childhood. He published many articles on his personal reflections and observations of school children in the journal ''Zeitschrift für psychoanalytische Pädagogik'' ("Journal for psychoanalytic paedagogics"), of which he became a co-editor in 1932. In the years 1930 to 1935 he developed his ''Spieltherapie'' (''
Play therapy Play therapy refers to a range of methods of capitalising on children's natural urge to explore and harnessing it to meet and respond to the developmental and later also their mental health needs. It is also used for Anatomically correct doll, ...
''), which he designed to be ''deutungsfrei'', free from interpretation. His understanding of the character and function of child's play and of the psychotherapy resulting from this were later lead down in his widely read book ''Heilende Kräfte im kindlichen Spiel'' (literally: ''Healing forces in children's play'' / vide ''Works'' section below). After
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Zulliger's work contributed to the re-kindling of psychoanalytic instruction in Europe. Zulliger is credited with development of the "Tafeln-Z-Test", which is a modification of the better-known
Rorschach test The Rorschach test is a projective test, projective psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychology, psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists u ...
. In addition to his books on child psychology, he was also a prolific author of books of
juvenile fiction Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as family dysfunction, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. It is characterized by simpler world build ...
. Both types of books have been translated and published in altogether 13 foreign languages (apart from German), including English, Spanish, French and Italian.


Play Therapy

His publisher describes Zulliger's radical approach thus (with quotes from the author and a book review): :''Das frei erfundene Spiel ist die eigentliche "Sprache" des Kindes. Man muß sie erlernen, wenn man wirklich Zugang zur kindlichen Psyche erhalten, wenn man "erziehen" will. Diesen Zugang finden nur wenige. Zulliger ist sogar überzeugt, "dass wir unsere Jugend meist missverstehen oder überhaupt nicht verstehen, weil wir anders als sie denken und erfassen, und weil wir nicht wissen, wie sie denkt und erfasst".'' :''Dem Verständnis dieser psychischen Schicht und der daraus entwickelten Psychotherapie widmet sich Zulliger. "Es geht in diesem Buch nicht um Spiel in einem harmlos vordergründigen Sinne, sondern um eine Bloßlegung der Kinderseele, die nicht nur Aufmerksamkeit, sondern schlechthin Erschütterung zulässt. Hans Zulliger erweist sich als einer der scharfsinnigsten Anthropologen der Gegenwart. Er handhabt sein Metier auf geradezu erregende Weise"'' (quoting a non-specified review by the
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (; "West German Broadcasting Cologne"), shortened to WDR (), is a German public broadcasting, public-broadcasting institution based in the States of Germany, Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a const ...
, the state-funded regional broadcasting company in
Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
) (from the 1972 edition of his book ''Heilende Kräfte im kindlichen Spiel'', Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt, opening pages). :(''Freely invented play is the essential ""language" of the child. One must learn it .e. the "language" if one wants to really gain access to the child's psyche, if one wants to "educate". This access only few manage to find. Zulliger is even convinced "that we mostly misunderstand our youth or even do not understand them at all, since we think and perceive in a different way from them, and since we do not know how they think and perceive.'' :''It is the understanding of this psychic layer and of the psychotherapy developed from this that Zulliger devotes himself to. "The matter of this book is not play in a harmlessly superficial sense, but a laying-free of the child's soul, which allows not only attention, but absolutely shaking. Hans Zulliger proves himself as one of the most sharp-witted anthropologists of the present time. He handles his craft in an almost exciting way".'')


Works

* ''Psychoanalytische Erfahrungen aus der Volksschulpraxis.'' (1921) * ''Aus dem unbewussten Seelenleben unserer Schuljugend.'' (1927) * ''Heilende Kräfte im kindlichen Spiel.'' First edition 1952; 8th edition: Klotz Verlag (publisher), Eschborn 2007, (in German). * ''The Zolliger individual and group test.'' German original edition 1954. English edition: International University Press, New York 1969. * ''Helfen statt strafen.'' (1956) * ''Einführung in die Kinderseelenkunde.'' (1967)#


References

* ''This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.'' * Based on the catalogue of the
German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...
.


Sources

* Friedrich Koch: ''Der Aufbruch der Paedagogik: Welten im Kopf - Bettelheim, Freinet, Geheeb, Korczak, Montessori, Neill, Petersen, Zulliger.'' Rotbuch Verlag, Hamburg 2000, (in German). * Danielle Milhaud-Cappe: ''Freud et le mouvement de pédagogie psychoanalytique 1908-1937: A. Aichhorn, H. Zulliger, O. Pfister.'' Librairie Philosophique Virin, Paris 2007, (in French).


External links

* Jeanne Moll, 'Zulliger, Hans (1893-1965)', in ''International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis''
Reprinted online
at
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zulliger, Hans 1893 births 1965 deaths People from Biel/Bienne 20th-century Swiss educators Swiss psychoanalysts 20th-century Swiss psychologists